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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24841831">Lighten Up?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixPlume117/pseuds/PhoenixPlume117'>PhoenixPlume117</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Race, Truth hurts, whiteification</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:55:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,057</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24841831</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixPlume117/pseuds/PhoenixPlume117</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An explanation of why Rena Rouge and Pegase are lighter than Alya and Max. - By a POC</p><p>Nino asks Alya why she gets whiter as Rena Rouge if they their subconscious creates their superhero identity. Markov and Max make a startling discovery about the REAL reason why Rena Rouge and Pegase/Pegasus get lighter when they transform.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alya Césaire &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I found this prompt and didn't want anyone to write it who has not felt what it's like to be a minority colored person or who has been discriminated against for it.  I'd like to also note that the prompt itself was offensive (unintended but offensive nonetheless).  It was unintended victim blaming and left a horrible taste in my mouth. As an adult fan I felt a responsibilty to tackle this issue, before it was attempted by someone less appropriate. I request that after reading the story you read page two for more notes.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nino asks Alya why she gets whiter as Rena Rouge if they their subconscious creates their superhero identity.  Markov and Max make a startling discovery about the REAL reason why Rena Rouge and Pegase/Pegasus get lighter when they transform.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the first time Nino ever had any down time with Wayzz and they were in his room listening to, of all things, Nasa's recordings of pulsars as Wayzz munched on a matcha flavored biscuit and sipped some tea.</p><p>"Little Dude?" Nino said.</p><p>"Yes, Master?"</p><p>"Dude," Nino said with reproach, they'd had this conversation before.</p><p>Wayzz smiled, "Yes, Sir?"</p><p>"Dude!" Nino said on the edge of laughter.</p><p>"Yes, Nino?" Wayzz said with a sigh of exasperation.</p><p>"Why do I look so different from everyone else as Carapace?"</p><p>Wayzz nodded, he'd seen the pictures before and it wasn't the first time a hero had asked this question of their kwami.  "The first transformation your subconscious supplies an image of what you think a superhero should look like based on the abilities you'll have, current clothing norms and what you would be comfortable wearing," Wayzz explained.</p><p>Nino nodded and thought about it, it made sense except the tight clothing. He really wasn't about that…  Then again no one really knew it was him maybe that was why it didn't bother him.  Wayzz was right, it really didn't bother him. </p><p>"You know all the heros' identities don't you?" Nino asked.</p><p>"Yes," Wayzz, drew out the word suspiciously.</p><p>"Do you really believe that?" Nino asked.</p><p>"I don't 'believe it', that is how the magic works," Wayzz said, taking a sip of his tea.</p><p>Nino snatched a biscuit and nibbled at it while a concerning thought niggled at his brain.  "Wayzz?"</p><p>"Yes?"</p><p>"Why does Alya get lighter when she transforms?" </p><p>Wayzz put his tiny cup down and floated up to his chosen's face and looked at him solemnly, "<em> That </em> I cannot answer.  Maybe <em> you </em> should ask <em> her, </em>" the tiny ancient being reminiscent of a turtle said gently.</p><p>Being marginalized minorities was part of what brought them together when they were sitting in that cage in the zoo.  Neither of them liked to talk about how it felt and somehow he knew it would have something to do with it.  Being a Christian Arab Moroccan in France sucked sometimes he couldn't immagine what it was like for Alya.  He read stuff all the time about how hard it was to be a black girl, but she didn't grow up a minority did she?  He shook his head to himself and to Wayzz. Even though the kwami had floated back to his biscuit and tea.  No, he wasn't going to say anything, it would probably only hurt her feelings.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Six weeks later Nino was sitting in the Césaire family living room snuggled against Alya as they watched the news.  US superhero Victory also well known as America's first Black Female President of the United States of America Camilla Hombee was holding a press conference.  Instead of wearing her long straight black wig, Presidential suit and standing behind a podium she stood behind a thin microphone with her short, natural, curly, dark, red, brown, hair wearing her red, and white, striped with blue accented super suit holding her large white star shield with her superhero team behind her.</p><p>"It's Majestia!" Alya said, perking up seeing her favorite heroine behind Victory's shoulder.</p><p>Nino watched the heroes on stage but without turning his head slid his eyes to his girlfriend watching her rapt attention on the screen.  The difference between Majestia and Victory was that of two fashion dolls.  While Victory was tall, black, and beautiful with her finger waved pixie cut, Majestia was beautiful with her long blonde hair and blue eyes and although Victory was the team leader for some unknown reason Majestia had become the face of the team and would often speak for them..</p><p>"Citizens! Due to the great effort the United States Centers for Disease Control has made we have isolated the origins of the chemical XYZZY also known as <em> The Sludge </em>." Victory said into the microphone as a vial was past up to her.  She held it up and the camera zoomed in on the tar like substance that seemed to be bouncing around on it's own.</p><p>"Alya?" Nino began.</p><p>"Shh!" She said, waving her hand at him and shaking her head, never taking her eyes off the television.</p><p>He sighed but turned back to watch.</p><p>"XYZZY contains no earthly substances which we discovered in 2013 however three days ago we discovered the meteorite it came to earth on.  Based on trajectory, soil samples and SETI data we have surmised that XYZZY first came into contact with earth in 1996 in Arizona outside Flagstaff.  Also based on all this information and working with our friends overseas we believe we now have collected all of the substance known as <em> The Sludge </em> XYZZY.  I will take questions now."</p><p>The press went crazy yelling "Victory!", "Ms.  Hombee!", and "Madam President!" to have her call on them for their answers.</p><p>"Alya?" Nino tried again.</p><p>Alya sighed with exasperation, she knew that voice.  She turned to him, half paying attention to the tv, what if they asked a good question, "Yes?"</p><p>"It's important, I promise."</p><p>Alya frowned and turned fully to him shrugging out from under his arm taking his hand ignoring the press conference, "What's going on?"</p><p>Nino looked quickly around to make sure no one was home yet, looked back at her then and took a deep breath, "Do you know why we look the way we do when we transform?"</p><p>Alya nodded not quite sure where this was going, "Yeah, it's our subconscious version of what a superhero should look like."</p><p>Nino shrugged, good enough, "Yeah," he just let that hang in the air.  Here he was and now he didn't want to ask.  He didn't want to hurt her, or call her out, or make her feel uncomfortable.  Maybe she didn't even know.  This was stupid, maybe they should just watch a movie.</p><p>"Nino?" Alya said worried, was something going on, did he have a fight with his parents? "Are you okay?  What's going on?"</p><p>Nino sighed and rolled his eyes, <em> great </em> now she was worried about him, "I'm fine, I just have a question and I'm not sure how you're going to react.  I'm not even sure if I should ask."</p><p>Alya's forehead wrinkled in confusion, "Nino, what's going on?  You know you can ask me anything."</p><p>Nino nodded and swallowed visibly, "How come Rena Rouge is whiter than you?" the question came out quietly but clear.  Every word an unintended condemnation.</p><p>Alya let go of Nino's hands and stood crossing her arms with her hands grasping the opposite arm as if she were keeping herself from falling apart.</p><p>Nino looked up at her stricken, "I-I'm sorry!  I- shou-"</p><p>"<em> No!" </em> Alya unintentionally yelled, then tried again, "no, I'm not mad at you." She looked at his expression that clearly showed he didn't believe her, and she smiled sadly and walked over to him and sat down.  "I'm not.  Really, I'm not mad at you," she unwound into his arms, taking the comfort he was eager to share. "I don't <em> know </em> why but I can tell you why I <em> think </em> Rena Rouge is <em> lighter </em> .  Babe, she's not <em> whiter </em>, she could be paper white and she'd still be black, just light," Alya teased so he wouldn't feel chastised.</p><p>Nino leaned over and kissed her forehead recognizing her teaching for the stalling tactic it was.  When she was ready she'd talk about it.</p><p>They sat in silence until Alya took a deep cleansing breath looking at a tribal mask hanging on the living room wall. "I think it's because everywhere in the world is influenced by European standards of beauty.  Even growing up in Martinique we had French magazines and Europeans and American tourists.  My mother is a world famous chef but she is a French chef.    She's certainly not recognized for her Creole food, even though she's won more awards for that than anything else.  Did you know that?  But do you know what they think Creole food is? A succulent blend of spices and cultures?  No, it's 'slave food'. Sure I've heard other descriptions of it but it's most often versions of calling it 'slave food'.</p><p>"Look at my hair!  Why do you think I straighten it?  My whole life I've been told it looks better this way.  I don't have Nora's confidence.  Why do you think people say it looks 'better this way'  Because it looks <em> whiter </em> this way."  </p><p>Her eyes filled with tears of fury and she pulled away from Nino and began to pace, "But I didn't know that it really affected <em> me </em>.  I thought I was above all that.  You know?  My parents raised me to be a proud black woman," she flung her arm out pointing to the symbols of African heritage dotting the Césaire family's walls, the masks, tapestries and pictures.  "I grew up with the stories of our greatness."  She shook her head sadly her arm falling to her side, "then I saw myself as Rena Rouge in pictures and," her voice cracked as tears once again began to fall, "I realized, I wasn't as strong as I believed.  They got to me too.  They made me doubt myself too."</p><p>Nino pulled her close wondering if there was a way for Trixx to change Rena after the first transformation and wondered how he could contact Ladybug and ask her if he could talk to his Wayzz about it.  "Do you ever wonder about Pegase?"</p><p>Alya shook her head, "No, did you see him?  He was so awesome with his hair locked he looked like Morpheus rebooted.  He probably got darker!" she giggled, wiping her nose and feeling a bit better.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Max sneezed and felt a chill down his back as he soldered two wires together. He looked up at his desk clock.  </p><p>"Markov?  How is that computation coming?"</p><p>"It completed 1253 seconds ago."</p><p>Max rolled his eyes, "Why didn't you tell me."</p><p>"I did, you did not reply," Markov replied.</p><p>"Did any theories come from it?" Max said, still leaning over the electronics hardware.</p><p>"According to information available at this time, the probability Pegase is lighter than Max Kanté is 100% likely to our being unaware we are living in a Matrix and the programmer is either racist or unaware of his color bias," Markov said.</p><p>Max sat back, nodded and sighed, "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Miraculous History Of Racial Discrimination</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This notes chapter has not been organized (I think that's pretty obvious).<br/>I wanted to get it published WITH the story, I'm sorry.  I will get it cleaned up, but not right now.<br/>The information being available was more important.</p><p>I am looking for a POC beta reader for this story</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I found this prompt and would like it understood I would NEVER want it used as an episode for "teaching" in Miraculous. If an episode were made like this, a team of people who have regularly discriminated against people of color and minority groups of faith would be excused of their negative biases and that is not my intention. Moreover if they were ever to do any type of show they would probably be applauded which they also do not deserve.  Ultimately, what needs to be done is make Pegase and Rena Rouge and all the colored characters with their original character's palate and simply apologize for bad taste. That's it, don't make any excuses.  Don't "whitesplain" just apologize fix the problem and and move forward. I'm not sure where the logic was to use a different skin palet came from but it was in bad taste and did not work.</p><p>Personally I never noticed Rena Rouge as being lighter.  I did notice her being darker as Rena Rage, and Lady Wifi and that irritated me but like most things, and most people of color I had to ignore it if I wanted to enjoy the show.  When Startrain came out and Max transformed I could no longer sit quietly by and ignore it.   Max was perfect, he showed a sucessful smart, eloquent, well liked, respected young black man, they even showed his highly intellegent black mother was trained as an astronaut, then they gave him a superpower! Everything was coming up Max Kanté.  Until he actually transformed.  Let it be noted, his transformation is also one of the coolest in the show but for most of it his back is to the audience and when he turns his skin is more of a golden brown than his normal dark brown.  Why?  His hair turned white to match Kaalki, his kwami's hair that made sense but Kaalki's face is brown.  A darker brown than Max's, so there was no reason to change his face at all unless they wanted to make it darker.</p><p>Why I felt it was victim blaming.  People of color are proud of who we are and the only reason Rena Rouge and Pegase are lighter is because animators have made them lighter.  The characters had nothing to do with it.  To ask them why even for an "interesting prompt idea" is offensive.  Imagine if I were to walk up to you tomorrow and ask you, "Why did you choose to get the flu last year?"  or if I were to ask someone "Why did you choose to get hit by a car?" imagine how awkward that would be.  Obviously these are not real people but we read their stories and live and learn through them.  As there are no magical superheroes in our world (that I'm aware of) I cannot give you a better example of those but Alya and Max are victims.  Neither of them asked to be changed </p><p>Miraculous has a history of derrogotary treatment of black characters.  Alya and Max aren't the only ones.  Thomas Astruc and team have a Miraculous comic out too and it was rough to read.   They chose to use negative sterotypes as a joke.  Writers, if all you can come up with is using stereotypes as the backbone of your story or your joke or NAMING your characters, don't bother, it's racist.   Yes, people will think it's funny but only certain people and evenually you will realize you didn't want to entertain them.  In the Miraculous Comic book that features Victory/President Hombee there are multiple black characters and their character's names are: "Public Enemy", "Metal Face D", "Getto Blaster", "Shaolin Soul" (Asian American), and "Killabee" when Marinette first sees them they are putting boxes into a moving truck and she says, "So I see you're looting… I mean moving... Please don't kill me" I remember my chin dropping.  I couldn't tell if it was just blatant racism, if it was a mix of anti-Americanism or what but it was shocking, after that I learned the names and it pretty much sealed the deal on blatant racism.</p><p><br/>As for President Hombee, it's noted that she revealed her superhero identity to get votes, "she revealed her secret identity so that she could stand a chance in the election".  She's argumentative with Marinette. She calls Ladybug "The Superheroes' Cleaning Lady" all in all she's not a likeable character.  So before noting, 'But they made the POTUS a black woman what are you complaining about' it is common for people to put a marginalized figure in a powerful place so they can specifically point that character out as a defense.</p><p><br/>Majestia on the other hand is sweet and always listens to Ladybug.  She's also discussed multiple times in Miraculous Ladybug the television show.  She's Alya's favorite character, etc.  Victory is just a female black Captain America.</p><p>I also want it known I'm not black nor am I of Caribbean decent.  I am South Asian, Pakistani to be specific.  My emotions writing this come from the Whiteification of the Subcontinent and a lot of it came VERY specifically from finding out about Manx/British actress Amy Jackson wearing brownface to portray a southasian woman in Bollywood/Indian Movies. </p><p>South Asia has an obsession with white beauty.  Most south asian girls can remember at least one time being told some variation of, "don't get too dark!"  They sell creams to "Brighten" skin. Whitification is big business in South Asia.  While that was offensive on its own when the actress Amy Jackson started getting into movies as an Indian character by wearing brown makeup I lost my mind.  As an American I'm familiar with blackface and its history.  Even when it was not being used to make fun of black people it was used so they would not have to hire them.  By putting a British actress in brownface an Indian woman lost money.  But this is far deeper than that.  You can put brown makup on a white woman but South Asians don't have the same jaws, lips noses, foreheads, or eyes.  So while Amy Jackson may have been the only one at the time I knew she would be the first.  I have no problem with Amy Jackson or any other foreign actress being in Bollywood movies.  I have a problem with them wearing brownface to pretend they are Indian women.    <br/>emulate their looks and will always fail because we don't look like them.  We cannot look like them.  So as the industry changes Indian actresses will not be hired and while that is bad what is worse is South Asian women and girls all over the world will judge themselves and NEVER be able to find themselves as "Beautiful" because like our black sisters we will never look like them.  </p><p>I'm not a big fan of beauty contests but the international beauty contests always intrigued me as an idea except the winners always fit a white idea of beauty.  The girls wear European dresses, have European hairstyles etc.  We live in a world where we are constantly judged by a standard of beauty we have to change ourselves if we want to be even be considered elegant and beautiful.  Where being natural is vulgar, where adults think it's appropriate to send 4 year old's home to have chemicals poured on their heads to perm their hair straight to emulate caucasian straightness.  Where brown girls find their natural noses ugly and want "cute little white noses" and it's sad.  Our society taught us these things, it snuck in when we weren't looking and when we realize it it hurts. </p><p>As I said before, I am NOT a black person, I'm brown. If an actual person of Martinique / Caribbean or any black descent feels that I have not appropriatly written this and would like to possibly collaberate, or even have me take the story down please contact me via gmail.  The information is available through my Ao3 profile.</p>
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